I am not familiar with Westside, in fact until starting 5-3-1 I had probably been doing the same routines I did 15 years ago.

What do you think Westside will give you that 5-3-1 wasnt? I am still making steady gains on just about all of my lifts so I have no reason to change up other than my travel schedule makes consistent lifting difficult and slows my progress.

Not a flame at all - and I understand you're being conservative because of your past back issues - but it just occurred to me that you're using not much more than half of what I'm using on deadlift ... and I'm a skinny old guy.

Point is I suspect you'll be very happy with the way you look when you double your deadlift poundage. Sure, take your time. Just sayin ....

I am not familiar with Westside, in fact until starting 5-3-1 I had probably been doing the same routines I did 15 years ago.

What do you think Westside will give you that 5-3-1 wasnt? I am still making steady gains on just about all of my lifts so I have no reason to change up other than my travel schedule makes consistent lifting difficult and slows my progress.

Click to expand...

I have no issue with 5-3-1, and may go back to it at some point. I just got bored with my workouts and decided to switch it up.

Dream, after I hurt my back, I started back at just deadlifting 90 lbs. So, I've slowly added 45 lbs back to it. Doing 5-3-1, I was adding 10 lbs a month to my total (as per the program), but now will shoot for adding 5 lbs a week or every two weeks.

I have no issue with 5-3-1, and may go back to it at some point. I just got bored with my workouts and decided to switch it up.

Dream, after I hurt my back, I started back at just deadlifting 90 lbs. So, I've slowly added 45 lbs back to it. Doing 5-3-1, I was adding 10 lbs a month to my total (as per the program), but now will shoot for adding 5 lbs a week or every two weeks.

Click to expand...

You'll be there in no time. And perhaps you'll be the happy recipient of 'muscle memory.'

I probably got a little too scared of deadlifting after the injury and may have dropped down too far. Then again, I weigh a whopping 140 lbs, so I'm basically deadlifting my bodyweight 3 times now (and I know I could do more reps but have been holding back). I have to consistently remind myself that these guys I see putting 225 on the bar weigh 200 often times as well.

It is kind of a neat compound cable exercise though. I felt it through my arms into my shoulder and back. Sort of like a variation of a lat pulldown.

Click to expand...

It is a great movement. I don't have access to a pulley so I just lay on my back, bend one leg, loop a resistance band around the back of the raised leg and pull my wrists back to the floor ... taking care not to bend the wrists in the process, so as to maintain the contraction in the ext rotators.

However, I don't feel the need to do a lot of them as I've already trained myself to drive elbows back and down on pullups and inverted rows. They basically hit the same muscles.

Today I was supposed to do 3 sets of 210 on squats... Went through some warmup stuff and some stretching. Hit my warmup sets, and thought to myself.. "I just don't see doing 3 sets of squats today"...

Instead, decided to see what my 1RM squat was.
225 x 1... easy (know I can do that anyway)
245 x 1... easy
275 x 1... got it. Slowed down in the middle of the lift, but didn't come to a stop. Bottom and top felt good.
300 x 0... felt pretty good at lift off. Decent was slow and felt good. Got about 2-3 inches up from the bottom and stalled. Down to the pins.
300 x 0, try 2... lifted off the rack, stepped back and got into position. Right heel felt funny inside shoe, so fidgeted foot around to get it right. Started decent... got maybe 2 inches or so into it and right foot/heel still didn't feel right. Went back up and racked it.

There it is. Got 275. Might have been able to power out 285, but that is a guess. Just not strong enough yet for 300 (which is almost 1.5x BW). Not bad, about what I expected.

Today I was supposed to do 3 sets of 210 on squats... Went through some warmup stuff and some stretching. Hit my warmup sets, and thought to myself.. "I just don't see doing 3 sets of squats today"...

Instead, decided to see what my 1RM squat was.
225 x 1... easy (know I can do that anyway)
245 x 1... easy
275 x 1... got it. Slowed down in the middle of the lift, but didn't come to a stop. Bottom and top felt good.
300 x 0... felt pretty good at lift off. Decent was slow and felt good. Got about 2-3 inches up from the bottom and stalled. Down to the pins.
300 x 0, try 2... lifted off the rack, stepped back and got into position. Right heel felt funny inside shoe, so fidgeted foot around to get it right. Started decent... got maybe 2 inches or so into it and right foot/heel still didn't feel right. Went back up and racked it.

There it is. Got 275. Might have been able to power out 285, but that is a guess. Just not strong enough yet for 300 (which is almost 1.5x BW). Not bad, about what I expected.